Food Allergy

Food allergy is not a frequently occurred phenomenon though lots of people believe they have it. Food allergy can be observed in 5 percent of children and 1 per cent of adults. What most people have is the food intolerance that is the disgust for certain types of food, which has nothing to do with the immune system. Food allergy is an adverse reaction to a food that is triggered by the immune system. As soon as your organism takes some products as harmful it produces certain antibodies to them. Normally antibodies are produced to overcome bacteria and viruses – things that can make you sick, not the food. Producing antibodies to certain food is the mistake of your immune system.

The next time you eat those products your body releases a huge number of chemicals including histamine. The most common form of an immune system reaction appears when the body creates immunoglobulin E (IgE) antibodies to the food. When these IgE antibodies react with the food, histamine and other chemicals (called "mediators") cause allergic reaction in your body (skin, respiratory tract, cardiovascular system and others). It is dangerous to your health and can be dangerous even to your life.

It is a mistake to think that while cooking things that provoke allergic reaction disappear. Actually they go nowhere but stay to cause the dangerous reaction inside your body. The individual is affected by the allergic reaction in such an order: an allergic person may first experience a severe itching of the tongue or "tingling lips." Vomiting, cramps or diarrhea may follow. Later, as allergens enter the bloodstream and travel throughout the body, they can cause a drop in blood pressure, hives or eczema, or asthma when they reach the lungs. The onset of these symptoms may vary from a few minutes to an hour or two after the food is eaten.